Emperor's Secret Code Cracked After

Five Centuries, Revealing His Fears

HUMANS 25 November 2022 By MARGAUX BERGEY

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An encrypted letter from Charles V, dated from 1547, at the Stanislas library in northeastern France. (Jean-
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A team of researchers has cracked a five century-old code which reveals a
rumored French plot to kill the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles
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Charles was one of the most powerful men of the 16th century, presiding over a HEALTH 3 days ago
vast empire that took in much of western Europe and the Americas during a
reign of more than 40 years. WHO Ranks The Deadliest
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It took the team from the Loria research lab in eastern France six months to Mysterious 'Disease X'
decipher the letter written in 1547 by the emperor to his ambassador in France. HEALTH 3 days ago

The tumultuous period saw a succession of wars and tensions between Spain
and France, ruled at that time by Francis I, the Renaissance ruler who brought
Leonardo da Vinci from Italy.

The letter from Charles V to Jean de Saint-Mauris had languished forgotten for
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centuries in the collections of the Stanislas library in value
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Cecile Pierrot, a cryptographer from and
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Snapshot of strategy
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In painstaking work backed
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some 120 symbols used by Charles V.

"Whole words are encrypted with a single symbol" and the emperor replaced
vowels coming after consonants with marks, she said, an inspiration probably
coming from Arabic. MORE OPTIONS AGREE

In another obstacle, he also used symbols that mean nothing to mislead any
adversary trying to decipher the message.

The breakthrough came in June, when Pierrot managed to make out a phrase in
the letter, and the team then cracked the code with the help of historian Camille
Desenclos.

"It was painstaking and long work but there was really a breakthrough that
happened in one day, where all of a sudden we had the right hypothesis," she
said.

Another letter from Jean de Saint-Mauris, where the receiver had doodled a
form of transcription code in the margin, also helped.

More discoveries to come

Desenclos said it was "rare as a historian to manage to read a letter that no one
had managed to read for five centuries."

It "confirms the somewhat degraded state" in 1547 of relations between Francis

I and Charles V, who had signed a peace treaty three years earlier, she said.

But relations were still tense between the two, with various attempts to weaken
each other, she said.

So much so that one nugget of information revealed was the rumor of an

assassination plot against Charles V that was said to have been brewing in
France, Desenclos said.

She said "not much had been known" about the plot but it underlined the
monarch's "fear".

The researchers now hope to identify other letters between the emperor and
his ambassador "to have a snapshot of Charles V's strategy in Europe", she
said.

"It is likely that we will make many more discoveries in the coming years," the
historian said.

© Agence France-Presse